Kuba Mikurda (born 1981) is a film scholar and filmmaker based in Warsaw, Poland. He started as a film critic, journalist and publisher, then worked as TV director and „Film News” talk show presenter for Canal+ Poland.

Mikurda has studied psychology (MA, 2006) and philosophy (PhD, 2012). He works as an Assistant Professor at Film School in Łódz. He has delivered a number of guest lectures abroad,including British Film Institute and Tate Modern in London and Volksbühne in Berlin. He has been a student of the maverick philosopher & psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek and written a thick book about his work.

Mikurda is fascinated by the idea of mixing film practice & research – he has explored various forms of visual film analysis, including graphic novel, found footage film, instalation and performance (as a creative duo with visual artist Jakub Woynarowski). Every time he falls in love with a film, he wants to share it with a largest number of people – this is how he initiated & co-edited books on Terry Gilliam, Brothers Quay, Guy Maddin, Tsai Ming-liang and, last but not least, Walerian Borowczyk.

Mikurda has been five times nominated for Polish Film Institute Award (category „film book”and „TV/radio show”) and won the Polish edition of British Council’s „International Young Screen Entrepreneur”.

Cecilia Actis

Argentina

Cecilia Actis, born in Cordoba, Argentina, studied stage and theater technology in Malmö, Sweden. She is a director, animator and currently a light technician at the Opera of Copenhagen.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 Igelkottsresan, short 2008 Attached to You, short 2006 Blue, Karma, Tiger, short 2003 The Dance of My Text, short

David Stumpf

Slovakia/Hungary

David was born on Slovak-­Hungarian borders in 1991. During past 4 years he studied animation at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Currently he works on his master’s degree at FAMU in Prague. While rendering school films he also works as a freelance animator on several projects, including TV Series The TOTS (dir. Vanda Raymanova and Michal Struss). And while rendering freelance work, David is developing his debut short film with Michaela Mihalyiova called THE END.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 Cowboyland, animated short

Teemu Niukkanen

Finland

Director Teemu Niukkanen, born 1978, is an awarded director living in Helsinki, Finland. Niukkanen started his directing career writing and directing online scetch comedy series. Later on he has directed dozens of music videos, couple of hundred commercial films and three tv comedy shows. Dark comedy FUCKING BUNNIES is his first fictional short film. Niukkanen is said to be ”the master of lame”.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Fucking Bunnies, short

Mauricio Osaki

Brazil

Mauricio Osaki was born in São Paulo, Brazil, where he started his career directing short films and working in feature projects as assistant editor and post producer at major film companies. At NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia, he completed his short film, MY FATHER’S TRUCK, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013 and has won numerous prizes at film festivals around the world. He currently lives in Brazil, where he is developing his first feature film.

Graduate of political sciences, student of Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia in Katowice. Director of several award-winning short films and commercials, including VFF Young Talent Award for the Best Film at International Festival of Film Schools in Munich 2010. In 2013 he finished his diploma film MAGMA.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 Panic Attack 2013 Magma, short

Linda Hambäck

Linda Hambäck, born 1974, is a Swedish film director and owner of the production company LEE Film. She works mainly with animated films for children, recently works such as Bajsfilmen (2016), Tänk om… (2014) as she co-directed with Marika Heidebäck. But she has also directed a short documentary, FIGHTING SPIRIT (2013). Before her directing debut she had a long background with producing highly acclaimed shorts.

FILMOGRAPHY 2018 Gordon & Paddy 2013 Fighting Spirit

Fijona Jonuzi

Sweden

Fijona Jonuzi, born in Sweden 1977, director and writer. Studied at the School of Photography and Film, Gothenburg University. Her graduation film JUNE, was nominated for Best short in the Swedish Guldbagge Award and was awarded Gyllene Draken by the magazine Film Konst. It also won the Jury’s Special Price at Uppsala International Short Film Festival. FLATMATES won The SF Nordic Talent Award at Nordisk Panorama and was nominated for Best Short in the Norwegian Amanda Award. Girl was nominated in Best Swedish Short at Gothenburg International Film Festival 2011 and competed in Sundance 2012. ASTRID premiered in the competition Best Swedish Short at Gothenburg International Film Festival in January 2012.

FILMOGRPAHY 2012 Astrid, short 2007 Flatmates, short 2007 June, short

Dominga Sotomayor

Chile

Dominga is one of the leading young directors from Chile. Her first feature film, De Jueves A Domingo / THURSDAY TILL SUNDAY, was developed at the Cannes’ Cinéfondation Résidence and won the Tiger Award for best feature at the Rotterdam International Film Festival 2012 as well as best film awards at the IndieLisboa, T-Mobile New Horizons IFF and Valdivia FF, among others. Dominga also had her video pieces and installations shown in Tate Modern and at exhibitions in Santiago de Chile.

They have been working together since 2005 , merging Karni’s atmospheric photographic style with Saul’s fantastical animated elements to create music videos, commercials and short films. In 2010 Karni & Saul showcased their short film TURNING, which then went onto feature at many festivals worldwide winning three, and was nominated for a BAFTA in 2011. Their new short film FLYTOPIA, commissioned by film4. Based on a dark, fantastical Will Self story, with original score by Adrian Utley , is showing in festivals worldwide. They are currently represented for commercial work at Aardman and are developing their first feature film.

Asaf Saban

Israel

Asaf Saban was born in 1979 in Israel. He lives and works in Tel-Aviv. Recently, he graduated from the film department at the “Midrasha” school of arts, Beit-Berl College. His short student films have been screened in film festivals around the world. On Leave is his graduation film.

Agata Prętka was born in Poznań (Poland). The graduate of The Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. The diploma in Film Department in Faculty of Multimedia Communication in 2010.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 Talk to Him, short (2010)

Hallvar Witzø

Norway

Hallvar graduated from The Norwegian Film School in 2010. He won the Student Academy Award, and received an Oscar nomination with his diploma film, TUBA ATLANTIC. His first professional short film, YES WE LOVE, is in the short film competition and is premiered at Cannes film festival 2014. Hallvar is now in development of his first feature movie.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 Yes We Love, short 2010 Tuba Atlantic, short

Megha Ramaswamy

India

Megha Ramaswamy is a screenwriter, director and producer based in Mumbai. Her hybrid short documentary, NEWBORNS premiered at TIFF’14 and was reviewed as the Best Film of Programme Four. It takes a close, discomfiting look at the lives of survivors of acid attack violence. Newborns has since travelled to numerous festivals like Clermont Ferrand, Films de Femmes, Byron Bay, Flicker Fest, Cinequest, Filmmor, and Human Rights Film Festival, Paris. Winning awards and top honours for its powerful storytelling and innovative technique. Megha has also been a beneficiary of the prestigious Chicken & Egg Fund in collaboration with IDF for the film and for her work with the support group Stop Acid Attacks.

Megha’s banner, Missfit Films, is dedicated to producing innovative films, which don’t necessarily subscribe to being independent or commercial.

Megha’s latest film Bunny premiered in North America at TIFF’15

FILMOGRAPHY 2015 Bunny, short 2014 Newborn, docucmentary short

Mia Hulterstam

Sweden

Mia Hulterstam was born in Linköping and studied stage and theater technology in Malmö, Sweden. She is a director, animator and currently a technician at the Theater of Malmö.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 Igelkottsresan, short 2008 Attached to You, short 2006 Blue, Karma, Tiger, short 2003 The Dance of My Text, short

Martin Snopek

Slovakia

Born on November 13, 1974 in Bratislava. He studied Animation on Film and Television Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. His diploma film EVERYDAY GRAZING was awarded among others also by the main student prize on Animafest Zagreb. Two of his short fi lms were distributed in cinemas in Slovakia as pre-fi lms. Besides the directing he works as a graphic designer and teacher.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 The Last Bus, short

Chintis Lundgren

Estonia

Chintis Lundgren is an Estonian-born animator currently living in Croatia. She studied fine arts at an alternative art school in Estonia called Academia Non Grata before pursuing a career as a painter. Lundgren later taught herself animation and quickly gained attention in the animation world for her quirky music videos, PSAs and short films featuring a light, absurdist tone along with distinct anthropomorphic characters. In 2011, Lundgren created her own animation studio called Chintis Lundgreni Animatsioonistuudio and later co-founded Adriatic Animation, an animation studio based in Croatia.

Her films (including ABOUT THE HARD LIFE OF THE BARN SWALLOW, the music video, I LOVE YOUR FACE, and the award-winning 2015 short, LIFE WITH HERMAN H. ROTT) have screened at numerous international animation festivals including Annecy, Zagreb, and Ottawa. MANIVALD is her first film with the National Film Board of Canada.

FILMOGRAPHY2017 Manivald, animsted short 2015 Life with Herman H. Rott, aniamted short 2014 Kingfisher, animated short 2013 Mysterious Swamp, animated short 2011 Montego, animated short 2011 About the Hard Life of the Barn Swallow, animated short 2010 Volli Pall, animated short 2009 The Great Grey Shrike, animated short

Hector Herrera

Canada

Hector Herrera is a creative director and animator living and working in Toronto. Having headed the design teams of several award winning studios (Cuppa Coffee Animation, The Studio Upstairs and Trace Pictures) he now freelances as a creative director designer and animator.

With over 13 years’ experience in broadcast design, Hector has created work for a diverse range of clients that include Cartoon Network, SpikeTV, BBC, CTV as well as advertising agencies such as JWT, Ogilvy and FCB among others.

His film and documentary work ranges from David Cronenberg’s Spider, Empire Of The Word, The Antarctica Challenge, The Nature Of Things and Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children based on Ret. Gen. Romeo Dallaire’s book of the same name.

He’s a founding partner of the animated content production studio Together: Words + Pictures for Art & Culture where he has designed and directed several animated music videos and short films.

His work has been showcased in several design publications such as Stash, Design In Motion, Applied Arts and Boards magazine and has garnered several BDA gold, silver and bronze awards. Hector is also an instructor in the illustration program at the Ontario College Of Art and Design where he teaches classes in digital mixed media, animated illustration and illustrated activism.

Aleksandra Terpińska

Poland

Polish filmmaker based in Warsaw. Director and screenwriter of short films, commercials and music videos. Studied Directing at the University of Silesia in Katowice, and Psychology at the University of Wroclaw. She has made several short films – CHICKEN, ALL SOULS’ DAY, AMERICA, THE BEST FIREWORKS EVER– and a documentary – CZECH SWAN.

Her film AMERICA (2015) recived 16 awards including Golden Horseman of the Youth Jury at Filmfest Dresden, Best Short Film at Sehsuchte International Student Film Festival in Potsdam, Golden Tadpole at Camerimage IFF, Early Bird Grand Award in Bulgaria and The Flaming Faun at Shnit International Shortfilm Festival. Her previous film All Souls’ Day was selected on over 100 film festivals among them San Sebastian, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Edinburgh, Clermont-Ferrand. It received 16 awards, including Grand Prix at Short Film Festival in Drama, Best Short Film at Cottbus Film Festival and PFI and Mastershot Award at Camerimage IFF.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 The Best Fireworks Ever, short 2015 America, short 2015 Czech Swan, documentary 2013 Chicken, short 2012 All Souls’ Day, short

Matan Yair

Israel

Filmmaker, an author and a high school history and literature teacher. He’s a graduate of the screenwriting program at the prestigious Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem, as well as of the MFA directing program at Tel Aviv University. Matan’s literary and artistic work derives from his personal experiences and biography. His documentary film IT IS WRITTEN IN YOUR ID THAT I AM YOUR FATHER (2008) describes a process of growing intimacy between himself and his father, Mordechai, who left home when he was thirteen. The film participated in Haifa International Film Festival’s competitive section as well as other film festivals. Matan’s drama UNSEEN focuses on his experience working as a teacher in a class for kids who were rejected from the regular school system. In 2009, Matan published his first novel, which is built as a diary of a teenager who documents one dramatic year of his adolescence. The novel was awarded from the National Library of Israel, described by the jury as a groundbreaking work. SCAFFOLDING is his first feature film.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 Scaffolding, feature 2016 Unseen, short drama 2008 It is written in your I.D that I am your Father, documentary feature film

Bartosz Kędzierski

Poland

Bartosz Kędzierski was born in 1976 in Wrocław. He is a Polish screenwriter and director. He studied Film Directing at the Radio and Tv Faculty of University of Silesia. He gained recognition in Poland thanks to his animated series LORDZ OF FLYS. The huge success of the series allowed him to produce a feature version of it. Kędzierski has also created other animated series: 1000 BAD DEEDS, PARAPET and DADDY! DADDY! DADDY! which were broadcasted by many TV channels. He also works as a film director in the advertising market.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 Wollen Cogwheels, animated short

Onur Tukel

USA / Turkey

Onur Tukel is a filmmaker, writer/illustrator and occasionally an actor. He probably own the world’s largest unread book collection. He doesn’t exercise at all. Prior to SUMMER OF BLOOD he directed 5 feature films and published two children’s books. About his feature film RICHARD’S WEDDING the Wall Street Journal claimed that it ‘sets a new standard for laughs-per-minute in a micro-budget comedy”. His latest film SUMMER OF BLOOD had premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and received great reviews. Tukel is currently directing an experimental feature film with musician Jamie Block.

Réka Bucsi, born in 1988, is a Hungarian independent animation filmmaker. She received her BFA and MFA at the animation department of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest. Her graduation film SYMPHONY NO. 42, got Shortlisted for the 87th Academy Awards. Her films were screened at official shorts competition Berlinale, SXSW, Sundance, Annecy, and won over 50 international awards. 2013/2014 she attended Animation Sans Frontiéres (ASF), the European Animation Production Workshop. She was an artists in residence at the Open Workshop in Viborg – Denmark, and at Q21 in Vienna – Austria. Her French co-produced short film LOVE was nominated for the European Film Awards 2017, and shortlisted for the César Award 2018. Réka is represented as a director by Passion Pictures.

Magnus von Horn was born in Göteborg and studied at the Łódz´ Film School. He lives in Warsaw. So far, he has directed a few short films, which have won him several awards around the world.

His documentary RADEK has won the Maciej Szumowski Award at the Kraków Film Festival, while his school short film ECHO received many awards, including the Silver Hobby Horse for the best live action short film, the best film award at the Munich International Short Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the Aix-en-Provence Tous Courts Short Film Festival. Echo was also officially selected for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. His diploma short WITHOUT SNOW premiered at the 2011 Locarno International Film Festival.

He has also received the Grand Prix at the Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Film and has been nominated for the Swedish Guldbagge Award for best short film. In Poland, he has received the Silver Hobby Horse at the Kraków Film Festival and the Grand Prix in the Young Cinema Competition at the Gdynia Film Festival. He is the co-screenwriter of Anna Kazejak-Dawid’s film The Word.

Born in 1983. A graduate of the Lodz Film School. His first-year film THE AIM (2005) received an honourable award for artistic virtue at the International Animated Film Festival ReAnimacja in Lodz and the first prize at Dozwolone do 21 lat (No Children above 21) film festival in Tarnow. His second-year film GREAT ESCAPE was screened during numerous international film festivals.

His latest film PATHS OF HATE (2010), whose simplified version constituted his diploma project at Lodz Film School, will soon enter festival circulation. He is a specialist in various fields relating to computer graphics and the author of short animated films, illustrations and concept art. He currently works at Platige Image Film Studio where he directs, creates animation, edits and works on a widely-conceived 3-D graphics.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 Paths of Hate, animated short 2010 City of Ruins, animated short 2006 Great Escape, animated short 2004 The Aim, animated short

Luca Tóth

Hungary

Luca Tóth studied animation at the MoholyNagy School of Design (MOME) in Budapest and at the Royal College of Art in London. She received a number of awards for he graduation short film THE AGE OF CURIOUS, such as the jury distinction at the Annecy IAFF or a special mention at the ITF in Stuttgart.

FILMOGRAPHY The Age of Curious

Joanna Kos-Krauze & Krzysztof Krauze

Poland

Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze are Poland‘s leading film auteurs. Their work is characterised by a deep humanist approach and respect for their protagonists. Their first collaboration was DEBT, directed by Krzysztof and jointly co-written. The film was recently chosen as the most important Polish production of the past twenty years. Altogether, their films have received more than 120 awards in Poland and around the world. Their films include MY NIKIFOR, a story about a forgotten painter (Award for Best Director in Karlovy Vary) and SAVIOUR SQUARE, a drama about a toxic family.

Sascha Fülscher works in the field between art and activism and likes to experiment with different techniques and formats. NEXT DOOR LETTERS is her graduation film from Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she studied documentary film making.

Sascha has previously directed Belgrade Bound, a documentary about three young adults in the City of Belgrade and HITMUSIC – RHYTHM OF THE REVOLUTIONARY, a colorful portrait of political artists. Sascha was born in Switzerland in 1983 and grew up in Lund, Sweden. She is a member of the filmmakers collective RåFILM, a collective of political and socially engaged filmmakers. She wants to continue exploring the worlds of animation, documentary and a combination of the two.

Born in 1981. Director, graphic designer, animator and illustrator. Michal was born and bred in Warsaw, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He is a wizard of storytelling and through his unique and compelling style he has captured audiences worldwide.

His animated short films like STONE (2006) ICARUS (2007), CONCERT (2007) were screened at festivals around the world and CHICK (2008) won awards at various international film festivals, including awards at Annecy IAFF, Ottawa IAFF, 49 Cracow Film Festival, BuSho, Animania, Art Directors Club of Europe, and many more. He also create one of the interesting Couch Gag for “The Simpsons”. In 2014 Michał participated as a segment director, and create short animation ON FREEDOM (2014) in the feature film KAHLIL GIBRAN’S THE PROPHET

Michal is now focusing both on short filmmaking and directing commercials and commissioned work. Co-owner of animation and post production Studio BrosFX.

Alan Holly is a Dublin based artist and filmmaker. He studied animation and has been working in various roles in the industry since 2005. He has directed a number of short films, his most recent film Coda is funded by the Irish Film Board.

FILMOGRAPHY 2013 Coda, short

Hlynur Pálmason

Iceland

Hlynur Pálmason is an artist / filmmaker born in 1984 in Iceland. He started out as a visual artist and continued his career in filmmaking by pursuing education at the Danish National Film School. His graduation film, A PAINTER (2013), won best short film at Odense IFF, Reykjavík IFF and was nominated for The Danish Film Academy. His latest short film, SEVEN BOATS (2014) premiered at Toronto IFF. His debut film WINTER BROTHERS will premiere in the main competition in Locarno in 2017. Hlynur lives in Copenhagen with his fiancé and three children and is currently working on his second feature, A WHITE, WHITE DAY, parallel with exhibiting art work and video installations.

Born on 11/04/1983 in Zoersel, Bas Devos wrote and directed four short films, TAURUS (2005), PILLAR (2006), THE CLOSE (2007) and WE KNOW (2009) and one feauture film, VIOLET (2014). Through image and a sparse narrative, he tries to capture moments of beauty, compassion and consolation. Violet explores these themes and investigates the consequent loneliness of its young protagonist. Besides his filmic work, Bas is involved in theater as a director and light designer. He currently writes a new film, ANIMAL LANGUAGE.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 Violet, feature 2009 We Know, short 2007 The Close, short 2006 Pillar, short 2005 Taurus, short

Kristóf Deák

Hungary

Kristof Deak (1982, Budapest) started his career in editing before studying directing at Westminster Film School. He has been working in London and Budapest, directing fiction short films and TV drama episodes. He is currently developing his first feature film.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Sing, short 2013 Monstrosity, short 2012 The Boss, short 2012 Losing It, short 2011-2012 Hacktion, TV series 2011 Germ Free Adolescent, short 2010 Golf With a Shotgun, short

Paul Wright

UK

In 2007, Screen International named Paul Wright as a UK ‘Star of Tomorrow’ following the success of his first short film, Hikikomori. Made whilst Paul was a student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the film won numerous awards, and was nominated for Best Short Film at the UK BAFTAs.

In the summer of 2008, Paul wrote and directed Believe, a short film produced by Rhianna Andrews (Young Films), with finance from Scottish Screen. The film won the Golden Leopard for Best International Short Film at the 62nd Locarno International Film Festival in August 2009. Paul is one of the writer/directors involved in the ‘Advanced Party 2’ scheme (Sigma Films/Zentropa Films).

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 Photos of God, short 2010 Until the River Runs Red, short (2010) 2009 Believe, short 2006 Hikikomori, short

Grzegorz Jaroszuk

Poland

Grzegorz Jaroszuk was born in 1983, in Warsaw. In 2011 he graduated from The Polish Film School in Lodz. Since 2012 Jaroszuk is a member of EFA. In 2011, his short film FROZEN STORIES received numerous awards and nominations at film festivals around the world, among them Pianifica Prizena at the 64th Locarno Film Festival, Grand Jury Prize at AFI FEST in Los Angeles. The film was shown at film festivals in Sundance, Munich, Warsaw, Krakow, Leuven and St. Petersburg.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 Kebab & Horoscope, feature 2011 Frozen Stories, short 2011 The Beginning of New Season, short 2008 A Story of a Missing Car, short 2008 Anger, short 2007 Authorial copy, short 2007 The End of Summer, short 2006 The Last Day, short

Signe Baumane

Latvia

Signe Baumane, an independent animator known for her controversial films on the subjects of sex, pregnancy, dentists and madness, was born in Latvia in 1964. In 1983 Signe successfully passed exams to enter Moscow State University and study Philosophy. The one thing she learned in her five years of Philosophy study was that knowledge is relative: what you know to be the truth today can become a lie tomorrow.

In 1991 Signe was given an opportunity to direct her first animated short, THE WITHCH AND THE COW, a two minute story about a tiny witch trying to milk a humongous cow. When the film was finished Signe started to work as a freelance designer and illustrator with publishing houses in Moscow and Riga. She illustrated several children’s books and made sets for a puppet theatre. In 1993 she received another grant to make TINY SHOES, a personal fairy tale about a young woman who dreams to marry a prince, but has to live with a dragon instead. Eastern European film festivals recognized it as a bold feminist statement. In 1995 she received a grant for her next film THE GOLF OF THE TIGERS, a complicated tale of tigers who interchange dreams with reality and reality with dreams. With her first three films Signe developed her unique storytelling style – direct, head-on, unflinching – and pursued the subjects that she was most interested in: violence, power, womanhood, relationships between men and women. Her first films also showed her fascination with animals, which are a big source of her inspiration. In 1997 she applied for and received a green card as an Extraordinary Ability Alien in USA.

By that time she had saved enough money to make her first short on American soil: LOVE STORY. Between 1999 and 2009 Signe wrote and directed 11 more award winning shorts: THE THREATENED ONE (1999) produced by Pierre Poire of Italy, NATASHA (2001) coproduced and co-directed with Josh Rechnitz, FIVE FUCKING FABLES (2002), WOMAN (2002) produced by Rija Films in Latvia, DENTIST (2005), FIVE INFOMERCIALS FOR DENTISTS (2005), VETERINARIAN (2007) produced by Rija Films, THE VERY FIRST DESIRE NOW AND FOREVER (2007), TEAT BEAT OF SEX: Episodes 1 – 3 (2007) produced by Pierre Poire, TEAT BEAT OF SEX: Episodes 8 – 11 (2008) produced by Pierre Poire, and BIRTH (2009). In all of Signe’s work, the influences of Eastern European traditions like those of Stasys Eidrigevicius in illustration and Jan Svankmajer in animation are easy to spot. But her New York films have a new, specifically American sensibility with their accessible storylines, developed gags and outrageous humour.

FILMOGRAPHY 2009 Birth, short 2007 Teat Beat of Sex: Episodes 8, 9, 10, short 2007 The Very First Desire Now and Forever, short 2007 Veterinarian, short 2007 Teat Beat of Sex, short 2005 Five Infomercials for Dentists, short 2005 Dentist, short 2002 Woman, short 2002 Five Fucking Fables, short 2001 Natasha, short 1999 The Threatened One, short 1998 Love Story 1995 The God of the Tigers, short 1993 Tiny Shoes, short 1991 The WItch and the Cow, short

Lauren Jackson

Lauren trained at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland in German and Film, TV & Media Studies. She works as a director, playwright, actor and drama tutor. Lauren attended film school in Germany in 1998, and in 2004 represented New Zealand at the 40th International Young Theatre Practitioners’ Forum in Berlin. Lauren has had her writing on the German and New Zealand film industries published in New Zealand and in Germany. In 2010 Lauren was selected to participate in Script to Screen’s short film lab, and in 2012 wrote and directed the short film I’m Going to Mum’s. Lauren has further film projects in development.

Lauren has directed various stage productions for the Pacific Institute of Performing Arts, Smackbang Theatre Company, Auckland Theatre Company and Four Afloat Productions. Lauren began her career playing the lead in the NZ feature film Alex. Following her graduation from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 2001, Lauren has enjoyed a variety of stage, screen and radio work. Theatre performances include Mr Marmalade, Land of Make Believe and Mr Kolpert at the SiLO Theatre. Her screen work includes roles in TV series: This is Not My Life, The Jaquie Brown Diaries and A Thousand Apologies; and in feature films: Perfect Creature, 1nite and The Tattooist. In 2005 Lauren won the Chapman Tripp Most Outstanding New Playwright of the Year Award for her play Exchange, which premiered at BATS in the Young and Hungry season. Exchange has been published by Playmarket Press and produced by Radio New Zealand.

In 2010 Lauren directed Exchange for Auckland Theatre Company’s Young and Hungry festival. In 2009 Lauren wrote Polly Hood in Mumuland — a Pacific adaptation of Red Riding Hood — which premiered as part of Pasifika 09. Polly Hood in Mumuland was also produced by Auckland Theatre Company in association with the Pacific Institute of Performing Arts for its successful 2011 season. Lauren has been commissioned to write the 2013 touring play for the ‘Duffy Books in Homes’ programme.

Bryn Chainey

Christopher Arcella

USA

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Christopher earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the Virginia Tech College of Architecture where he worked as an assistant to the director of the Virginia Tech Multimedia Lab. Following graduation he gained experience as a designer at IDEO San Francisco and Blu Dot before starting an interaction design studio called RUNROBOTS. While running this studio he spent over a year working part time at the office of independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. This combined professional experience in both design and film has strongly influenced his creative process.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 I Don’t Blame the Beautiful Game, short

Johan Oettinger

Denmark

Johan Oettinger is a self taught Danish director and filmmaker who has worked on stop-motion and live action productions since his 13th year. A number of commercial productions (music videos and TV spots) are on his filmography. In 2001 he directed his first short film THE KILLING OF EVIL and since that time he has directed and produced 2-3 short films a year, many of them together with the creative partner Emil Brahe, composer and filmmaker. Johan Oettinger also works as a set designer and set builder and on e.g. films for Lego.

Daniel Mulloy films are known for nuanced and sensitive exploration of characters often concentrate on story worlds with strong social themes. Mulloy is a BAFTA and BIFA winning filmmaker and has been nominated for an Indie Spirit and European Academy Award. Three of his films have premiered at Sundance and he is two time winner of the Edinburgh international Film Festival. His films have received near one hundred international awards.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Home, short

Matt Porterfield

USA

Matt Porterfield studied film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and teaches in the Film & Media Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University. His first feature, HAMILTON, was released in 2006. Named “one of the finest American independent films ever made” by New Yorker film editor Richard Brody, it was recently acquired for the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. His most recent feature, PUTTY HILL, premiered at the Berlinale’s International Forum of New Cinema in 2010 and was released in the U.S. by Cinema Guild in 2011. Matt has two projects in development, METAL GODS (IFP No Borders, 2012) and SOLLERS POINT (IFFR’s CineMart, 2013).

Laura is a NYC-based director and production designer. Her early work has screened at MoMA, Anthology Film Archives and the Boston International Film Festival, where she was awarded Best Director for her featurette, RISING UP.

Her latest short, FRY DAY, screened at SXSW and Tribeca in 2017, where it won the Student Visionary Award. FRY DAY has since screened at over 40 international festivals and won 30 awards, including the Grand Prix for Best Short at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and Best Narrative Short, Hollyshorts, 2017.

Laura is an alumna of NYU’s graduate film program. She was recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 Fry Day, short 2009 Rising Up, short

Ivana Šebestová

Slovakia

She graduated in animated film from the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava, where she currently teaches.

Her master’s degree film LIONARDO MIO (2005) gained an award at the Bologna European Festival of Film Schools. She won twelve domestic and international awards for her début film FOUR (Štyri, 2007). She took part in the production of the animated musical Stones (Kamene, 2010) by director Katarína Kerekesová. Together with her, she also created an educational film for the Slovak National Museum called HOW I WENT WITH GRANDPA TO VISIT THE ANCESTORS (Ako som šiel s dedkom na návštevu k predkom, 2010).

FILMOGRAPHY 2013 Snow, short 2010 How I Went with Grandpa to Visit the Ancestors, short 2007 Four, short 2005 Lionardo Mio, short 2001 My Love, short

Isabelle Sieb

UK

Isabelle Sieb started her career directing documentaries for clients like National Geographic and FIFA in South Africa. London-based since 2010, she has made four short films, two of which screened at festivals in the UK and internationally. She is currently developing a slate of projects in the UK, Germany and Los Angeles and has recently been selected for the Northern Film & Media feature development scheme RISE funded by Creative Skillset and the BFI.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Three Women Wait For Death, short

Kristoffer Rus

Sweden

After finishing inter-arts studies at Lund University and later film school in Stockholm, Kristoffer Rus started to work as an editor and cameraman for TV 4 in Sweden. At the same time he was writing scripts and directing shorts. The short film THE APPLE TREE (produced by Lars Jönsson, Memfis Film) was awarded and recognized at film festivals like Cannes, Marrakech and Palm Springs.

In 2007, Kristoffer decided to go back to his Slavic roots. He got enrolled at Wajda School (before known as Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing) where he developed and later shot a film called STREET FEELING. The film is a part of the new Decalogue where 10 young promising directors have been chosen to deal with the old moral questions by modern means of storytelling. STREET FEELING also works as a standalone film and has already been screened and awarded at several international film festivals. Kristoffer is currently working both in Sweden and in Poland. He directs a TV-show about film, aired on Polish national television. He has recently been granted funds for his new film NATURALS. Currently Kristoffer is working on his feature film debut called MASAKRA PROFANA.

FILMOGRAPHY 2009 Street Feeling, short 2003 The Apple Tree, short 2002 The Last Round, short 2001 Smiling Faces, short 2000 Red On White, short

Dominga Sotomayor

Chile

Dominga is one of the leading young directors from Chile. Her first feature film, DE JUEVES A DOMINGO (Thursday till Sunday), was developed at the Cannes’ Cinéfondation Résidence and won the Tiger Award for best feature at the Rotterdam International Film Festival 2012 as well as best film awards at the IndieLisboa, T-Mobile New Horizons IFF and Valdivia FF, among others. The film was released theatrically in the US, UK, Portugal, Poland, Chile, Argentina and Mexico.

Her second feature film MAR had worldwide premiere during Berlinale 2015 in Forum Section. Dominga also had her video pieces and installations shown in Tate Modern and at exhibitions in Santiago de Chile. She directed several short films, including LA ISLA (2014), which won the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2014 and Best Short Film at Huesca Film Festival 2014. Her next feature film, TARDE PARA MORIR JOVEN (Late to die young), took part in the Binger Filmlab program and received the support from the Sundance Institute (Global Film Maker Award) and Hubert Bals Fund.

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1978. He is a graduate of the prestigious film program at Columbia University, New York. His first feature film Á ANNAN VEG (Either Way) screened at film festivals all around the world and was re-made in the US as Prince Avalanche (starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch). Hafsteinn was selected as “Variety’s Ten European Directors to Watch” in 2012.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 Under The Tree, feature 2014 Paris of the North, feature 2011 Either Way, feature

Caroline Ingvarsson

Sweden

Caroline Ingvarsson’s short BENEATH THE SPACESHIP (2015) premiered at TIFF 2015 and then screened at BFI London Film Festival and Stockholm Film Festival. In 2014 Ingvarsson won the “After Bergman” script award for her the script of Beneath the Spaceship. In May 2015 Ingvarsson was selected as one of six participants for Pure Fiction, a feature film development program for Swedish Female Directors.

She was also the recipient of the 2014 SWEA Los Angeles Film Grant, and the 2014 Pixel Director Talent Award. Ingvarsson’s short documentary THE DOGWALKER (2014) won 2nd prize for Best Documentary at Palm Springs Short Fest as well as the Audience Award for Best Film at Uppsala International Shortfilm Festival. The film screened at DOK:Leipzig in addition to Camden and Chicago’s International Film Festivals, as well as in Zagreb DOX 2015 and TEMPO Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Tempo New Doc Award. Caroline holds a Diploma in Screen Studies from Sydney Film School, Australia, and a Masters Degree in Broadcast Journalism from City University in London, England. She currently resides in Malmo, Sweden.

Gunhild Enger

Norway

Gunhild Enger (1980) graduated from Edinburg College of Art, and The School of Film Directing in Gothenburg. She was nominated for a BAFTA with her graduation film BARGAIN, and has since then screened her films in festivals around the world. The film PREMATURE, won the international Grand Prix at Breif Encounter, Bristol 2012. Her film PASSION won for the best international short at Alcine, Madrid 2009. She is currently working as a director in Norway and Sweden.

FILMOGRAPHY 2013 Premature, short 2012 Bargain, short 2009 Passion, short

Gustavo Pizzi

Brazil

Gustavo Pizzi is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter. His directorial debut was RISCADO / Craft, which world-premiered at SXSW and went to over 40 other film festivals worldwide. In 2010 Gustavo produced the short film Ivan’s Distraction, which world-premiered at the Semaine de la Critique of Cannes International Film Festival. In 2012 Gustavo directed the documentary TV Series Oncotô. He also worked on the script of the TV series #callmebruna, already in its second season, broadcasted by Fox Premium in all Latin America. His is now developing the film/miniseries GILDA.

FILMOGRAPHY 2018 Loveling 2010 Riscado / Craft

Elisabet Gustafsson

Sweden

Elisabet Gustafsson is a Swedish director and producer, born in Stockholm, Sweden. She studied at Stockholm and Lund University and graduated with a Degree in Literature. She started her carrier working for theatre as stage director from 1992 to 1998. In 1998 she moved to Paris where she produced TV reports and short documentaries for Scandinavian TV-channels. Since 2003 she is established as film director and producer in Sweden.

FILMOGRAPHY 2011 The Seventh Pullet, short 2010 Awaiting Examination, short 2007 The Great Magician, short 2005 Let Us Dance, short 2003 Älskade du, short

Mark Cousins

UK

Mark Cousins is an Northern Irish filmmaker, writer and curator living and working in Scotland. In the early 1990s he became director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. His 2004 book The Story of Film, was published in Europe, America, China, Mexico, Brazil and Taiwan. The Times said of it “by some distance the best book we have read on cinema.” Cousins adapted the book into a 930 minute film, THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (“The place from which all future revisionism should begin” – New York Times). Michael Moore gave it the Stanley Kubrick Award at his Traverse City Film Festival. It won a Peabody Award in 2014.

Next Cousins wrote, directed and filmed his first feature documentary, THE FIRST MOVIE, about kids in Kurdish Iraq. It won the Prix Italia. His other feature films include WHAT IS THIS FILM CALLED LOVE?, HERE BE DRAGONS, A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM, which was in the Official Selection in Cannes, LIFE MAY BE, co-directed with Iranian filmmaker Mania Akbari, and 6 DESIRES, an adaptation of DH Lawrence’s book Sea and Sardinia.

He is currently making STOCKHOLM MY LOVE, a city symphony starring Neneh Cherry, and directing the archive film ATOMIC, a collaboration with the band Mogwai.

FILMOGRAPHY Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise, documentary 2015 I Am Belfast, documentary 2015 Your Eyes Flash Solemnly with Hate, short 2014 6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia, documentary 2014 Life May Be, documentary 2014 The Place, short 2013 Here Be Dragons, documentary 2013 A Story of Children and Film, documentary 2012 What Is This Film Called Love? 2011 The Story of Film: An Odyssey, TV Mini-Series documentary – 15 episodes 2009 The First Movie, documentary 2008 First Impressions, Video documentary short 2008 The New Ten Commandments, documentary 2005 Cinema Iran, TV Movie documentary 1999-2000 Scene by Scene, TV Series – 3 episodes 1994 I Know Where I’m Going! Revisited, TV Movie documentary 1993 The Psychology of Neo-Nazism: Another Journey by Train to Auschwitz, documentary

Tudor Giurgiu

Romania

Tudor Giurgiu is a member of the European Film Academy, founder and President of the Transilvania International Film Festival, founder of the production company Libra Film and of the film distribution company Transilvania Film, co-founder of Cityplex – local exhibitor (11 screens) – and initiator of the Gopo Awards Gala.

Tudor’s debut feature LOVE SICK was selected in Panorama section of 2006 Berlinale and awarded in several int’l festivals. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as General Director of Romanian National Television (TVR). In 2008, he directed for HBO the documentary WEDDINGS, MUSIC AND VIDEOTAPES. Tudor was involved as main producer in Katalin Varga by Peter Strickland, awarded with a Silver Bear in 2009 Berlinale and with the European Discovery of the Year at EFA Awards.

Animator and illustrator, Endre Skandfer is a young veteran within the Norwegian animation industry with over 15 years experience from the biggest production studios. He has directed several short films, commercials, commission films and music videos, as well as the children’s TV-series KU-TOPPEN. DUNDER is his most ambitious project. Skandfer have been heavily involved from start to finish, incorporating his vision in every stage of the production.

Ognjen Glavonić was born in 1985 in Pančevo, SFR Yugoslavia. His short films have been selected for more than 50 international film festivals. Zivan Makes a Punk Festival, (2014), his first documentary, had its premiere at Cinéma du Réel and has been screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam, CPH:DOX, and IndieLisboa, among others. Ognjen’s documentary Depth Two (2016) had its premiere in the Forum section at the Berlinale, and was named best film at Festival dei Popoli, DokuFest, Message to Man, Open City Docs Fest, ZagrebDox and Kassel Dokfest. He is the founder of Pančevo Film Festival. The Load is his first feature film.

Tomasz Wasilewski

Poland

Born 1980. Polish scriptwriter and director. Tomasz started his career with a low-budget feature film IN A BEDROOM, which world premiered in Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2012 and travelled to numerous festivals picking up prizes in Mannheim-Heildelberg IFF, among others. His second feature film FLOATING SKYSCRAPERS had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 (selected as one of Indiewire’s Top Films of the Festival). The film won the East of the West debut competition at Karlovy Vary iff in 2013, Best Director Award at Transylvania iff 2014, Audience Award at the T-Mobile New Horizons IFF in Wrocław, and Best New Directing Talent and Grand Prix of the Youth Jury at Gdynia Polish Film Festival. UNITED STATES OF LOVE was presented at Cinemart and Berlinale Coproduction Market in 2014.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 United States of Love, feature 2014 Floating Skyscrapers, feature 2012 In a Bedroom, feature

Niki Lindroth von Bahr

Sweden

Niki Lindroth von Bahr, born in 1984, is an artist and animation director based in Stockholm. She got her master degree in fine art at the Royal Institute of Art in the spring of 2016. Her films BATH HOUSE (2014) and TORD AND TORD (2010) has been screened at festivals around the word, such as Berlinale, Sundance, AFI and Annecy. TORD AND TORD was also nominated as Best Shortfilm at Guldbaggegalan 2011.

Born in 1984. Jan graduated in Film Directing from Krzysztof Kieślowski Faculty of Radio and Television University of Silesia in Katowice and completed the Documentary Course in Wajda School. His films such as 15 YEARS OF SILENCE, AFTER PARTY, HEAVEN have been screened and won prizes at numerous festivals in Poland and abroad. Jan P. Matuszyński is most recognized for his documentary DEEP LOVE (Best Documentary Award at the 36th IFF in Moscow, the Silver Horn award for Best Feature Documentary Film at the 54th Kraków FF and more). THE LAST FAMILY is his feature film debut.

Guðmundur was born in Reykjavik, Iceland 1982. He graduated in fine art from the Icelandic Art Academy. There after he moved to Denmark and studied screenwriting. Guðmundur works as a filmmaker and a part time teacher in film and fine art. His short films have collected 20 international awards and over 100 nominations. WHALE VALLEY received among others, a Special Mention in the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival, Best Short film at Hamptons I.F.F. and a nomination for Best Short film to the European Film Awards. ÁRTÚN received f.x. the Grand Prix for Best Short Film at Brest S.F.F and The Golden Plaque for Best Live Action/Narrative Short at Chicago I.F.F.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 Ártún, short 2013 Whale Valley WHALE VALLEY (15 min)

Kristin Ulseth

Norway

Kristin Ulseth (b.1968) has a BA in Film and Photography from Harrow College, University of Westminster in London. She has worked professionally in the Norwegian and Nordic film and television industry since early 90s doing a wide range of work on shorts, creative documentaries, TV-drama and feature films. In 2008 she started producing at Maipo Film, producing the 360° animation project Alfie Atkins with an animated TV-series, feature film and app-game in 2013, and the live action feature Gilbert’s Grim Revenge, and the app-game Gilbert’s Eggggg in 2016. ODD IS AN EGG is her first animated short film as a director.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Odd Is an Egg, animated short

Antti Heikki Pesonen

Finland

Antti Heikki Pesonen is a director and scriptwriter originally from Korso. He has studied directing (film and tv) in School of Arts, Design and Architecture (Aalto University/Helsinki). He sometimes finds humor in the grim and he thinks it is funny that he writes a biography about himself in a thrid persona.

FILMOGRAPHY 2012 Say Yes and Dance, short 2012 So it Goes, short 2011 Meal with a Deal, short 2010 Happy Fatties, short 2008 Mentally Fat, short

Marcin Janiec

Poland

Graduate of Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, painting faculty. Specialist in digital special effects, 3D artist, motion designer. Producer of many music videos, author of illustrations and visual concepts in TV commercials and movies. In his free time he paints and… plays chess. Currently working at Badi Badi. THE GAME is his first film.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 The Game, short

Ali Asgari

Iran

Ali Asgari was born in Tehran, Iran. He studied cinema in Italy. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talent Campus 2013. Two of his short films MORE THAN TWO HOURS (2013) and THE SILENCE (2016, co-directed by Farnoosh Samadi) were in competition at Festival de Cannes where they competed for the Short Film Palme d’Or. His short film THE BABY premiered in competition of Venice Film Festival in 2014. His short films were screened in more than 600 film festivals around the world including Sundance, BFI London and Melbourne and won more than 150 international awards. DISAPPEARANCE is his first feature film. The script was developed at Cannes Festival’s Cinefondation La Residence.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 Disappearance, feature film 2016 In The Same Garden (Vika episode), short 2016 The Silence, short 2015 The Pain, short 2014 The Baby, short 2013 More Than Two Hours, short 2012 Barbie, short 2011 Tonight Is Not a Good Night for Dying, short

Michal Žabka

Michal Žabka (born in 1965) graduated from Film School Zlín and in Animation from FAMU, Prague. He works as a free-lance filmmaker and director with several Czech production companies and studios.

FILMOGRAPHY 2007 Mrs. G 2001 Premammals 1999 Baballoon

Shady Srour

Israel

Actor, scriptwriter, director and producer for Cinema, Theatre and tv, and a lecturer at the Open University. He has b.a degree from Tel-Aviv University in Theater acting and m.f.a in filmmaking from the Academy of Art University. Lately Shady was involved in the film 24 HOURS JERUSALEM (ARTE), which won the German tv Award for best midlength documentary 2014. He was the Lead in the Oscar-nominated short film Ave Maria. HOLY AIR is his feature debut as director.

Hanne Berkaak is a freelance illustrator and animator currently based in Oslo, Norway. She has a Master in Communication Art & Design from Royal College of Art, London and a BA in animation from Parson’s School of Design, New York. Berkaak has directed animations for clients such as Playstation, Channel 4, Yo Gabba Gabba and Save The Children. As a child, Berkaak spent her summers with her family in Lapland. With her short film debut, THE MARATHON DIARY, she has been inspired by the landscapes and memories of these childhood summers.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Marathon Diary, short

Selma Vilhunen

Finland

Selma Vilhunen (b.1976) is a director and a screenwriter of both fiction and documentary films. She has graduated from the Turku Polytechnic / Arts Academy in film directing. Her works as a director include PIETA (TV film) and PONY GIRLS (follow-up documentary), which won the main prize in Tampere Film Festival. She has also written a feature film Homesick (with director Petri Kotwica) and A tv film Suburban virgin (dir. Hanna Maylett). She lives in Helsinki with her husband and daughter.

FILMOGRAPHY 2011 Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?, short

Eirik Svensson

Norway

Eirik Svensson, born in 1983, belongs to a brand new generation of Norwegian directors. He graduated from the Norwegian Film School in 2010 with internationally acclaimed short film called FRIDAY. Before that he has attended film school in Finland – Lillehammer University College (LUC) where he met Jyrki Väisänen, with whom he co-wrote and directed the short LIFE WORTH LIVING. In 2013 he made his feature film debut called MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE. ONE NIGHT IN OSLO is his second feature film.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 One Night In Oslo, feature 2012 Must Have Been Love, feature 2010 Friday, short 2006 Life Worth Living, short

Cristina Grosan

Romania

After graduating from the Faculty of Theatre & Television of Babes Bolyai University, Romania with a 4 year BA in film, she continued her MA at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art, Budapest directing several shorts which travelled the European festival circuit. She graduated in 2012/2013, directing CARRY ME AWAY. Based on that work, Cristina was selected among two other filmmakers for a one month residency at the Sarajevo City of Film, where her most recent short film was produced and shot.

HOLIDAY AT THE SEASIDE premiered in Sarajevo in August 2013, winning the “Atlantic Group” grand prize for best short film. She is developing OPENING, a short film focusing on a young transsexual working in a sex chat, as an operator, which gives him not only a chance to earn easy money, but to practice what he wants to become: a woman. OPENING is nominated for the 2014 Film Prize Germany/Eastern Europe by the Robert Bosch Foundation, and was also selected for the European Short Pitch, organized by NisiMasa.

On the long term, she is working on a first feature film project, A COAT OF GOLD telling the story of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer who refuses surgery. On a commercial side, I’ve worked on a variety of commissioned works from clips showcasing United Nation’s work, to book trailers and classical advertisement clips. I work in the advertising industry in Budapest.

FILMOGRAPHY 2013 Holiday at the Seaside, short 2009 Express Delivery Service, short

Tomasz Bagiński

Poland

Born in 1976. Director, animation and producer. He is a self-taught artist. He left architecture studies to make films. His first student film Rain won several local awards in 1998 and became an entry pass to Platige Image studio, where he currently works as an Art Director. From 1999 to 2002 he worked, with short intervals, on his debut short film THE CATHEDRAL. The film won the first prize for Best Animated Short at the largest animation and special effects festival SIGGRAPH in 2002 and it was nominated a year later for an Academy Award in the category Animated Short Film.

In 2004 he completed his second short animated film entitled FALLEN ART. He won the Jury prize at SIGGRAPH festival in 2005 and became the first person in the history of the festival to have won both main prizes. The confirmation of the success of both The Cathedral and Fallen Art are numerous awards and the films’ screenings at tens of international festivals. He received the BAFTA Film Award for Best Short Animation.

When not working on his own projects he produces special effects and animations for film and advertising productions. He is also no stranger to theatre productions. He is the director of, among others, a virtual set for a commemorative concert of Krzysztof Penderecki entitled Seven Gates of Jerusalem which was the basis for a musical-ballet film nominated by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Emmy Award 2009. He currently prepares the realization of his first feature-length film HARDKOR 44.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 The Kinematograph, short 2010 Animated History of Poland, short 2004 Fallen Art, short 2002 The Cathedral, short

Ivana Laučíková

Slovakia

Born on October 12, 1977 in Partizánske. She studied Animation on Film and Television Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and nowadays she’s teaching there. In 2006 she established a production company feel me film and debuted as a producer with an animated short by Ivana Šebestová FOUR. She’s a founder and editor in chief of a magazine about animated fi lm Homo Felix.

FILMOGRAPHY 2011 The Last Bus, short

Renata Gąsiorowska

Poland

Born in 1991. Animation student and cartoonist from Cracow, Poland. In 2010 graduated from The National School of Fine Arts in Cracow. Currently 5th year student of Film Animation and Special Effects Department at the Polish National Film School in Lodz.

A former film critic, in 2007 Andrei became Creative Manager of HBO ROMANIA’S “Original Production” department and went to produce In deriva (an adaptation of HBO US’s In Treatment) and nine original documentaries. In 2011 he left HBO and started his own production company, Kinosseur. He wrote and directed BAD PENNY and KOWALSKI (winner of the Golden Pram – Zagreb Film Festival 2014). RAMONA is his third self-financed short film. Andrei is currently in pre-production with his first feature, Charlton Heston, which he’ll shoot in Fall 2015.

Marta Pajek was born in 1982 in Kielce/Poland. She graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, where she specialized in animated film in the class of Jerzy Kucia. As part of an exchange programme she studied in Turku Arts Academy in the class of Priit Pärn. Author of the animated short films. Her previous film – Impossible Figures and Other Stories II was screened and awarded at almost 80 festivals in Poland and abroad and scored 25 awards among others Grand Prix of the Stuttgard ITFS. Marta Pajek lives and works in Warsaw.

Tam King specializes in 2D digital animation, but loves visual storytelling of all kinds. She has done work with installation art, projection mapping, graphic novel illustration, and sound art. As a kid, Tam first learned to animate digitally at the Intel Computer Clubhouse, a community center in her hometown of New Mexico. As an adult, she is passionate about promoting media literacy and creating content that empowers kids of all backgrounds.

In 2012, Tam earned her bachelors degree in studio art at Stanford University, before moving on to Savannah College of Art and Design to study animation. In 2010, she worked as visual developer and key animation for the Oscar long-listed short, El Salon Mexico. Later, as part of the animation collective Obscura Works, Tam co-directed STARLIGHT, another Oscar long-listed short. She is currently working on her thesis project, researching coming of age stories for girls in animation. In the future, Tam hopes to help create animated children’s content that will empower kids, and help promote empathy and critical thinking.

FILMOGRAPHY Three Wishes and a Half Avez-vous du Feu? Art’s New Car Timothy and the Great Robotic Invaders from Outer Space El Salon Mexico Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines Starlight

Tobias Nölle

Switzerland

Tobias Nölle (1976 Zürich) studied film at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His short film RENÉ (2008) was screened at numerous festivals worldwide and won several awards such as the Golden Leopard in Locarno for the best Swiss short. Nölle is one of the directors of WONDERLAND, which premiered at the Festival del film Locarno 2015 (International Competition).

ALOYS is his first feature, which he wrote, directed and edited. It was developed at the Torino Film Lab and selected for the Rotterdam Cinémart and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Lisa James Larsson was born in Potsdam and brought up in London. She moved to Stockholm in 2005 to study film directing at Dramatiska Institutet.Lisa studied film TV at Brunel University in London before working for five years as a camera operator/editor and also teaching screen acting. In 2009 she completed her Masters at Dramatiska Institutet in screenwriting.

The Icelandic director Grímur Hákonarson, born in 1977, graduated from FAMU – Film Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 2004. His graduate film, Slavek The Shit, was the first film that got international attention. It was selected to the Cinefoundation section of Cannes Film Festival 2005 and won 12 festival prizes, including the “Silver Hugo” in Chicago International Film Festival. His next short film, WRESTLING, premiered in Locarno Film Festival 2007 is one of the most successful short films from Iceland. It won 25 festival prizes around the world.

Gabe Klinger is an award-winning filmmaker, film studies professor, and author. His acclaimed documentary DOUBLR PLAY: JAMES BENNING AND RICHARD LINKLATER (2013) won a Lion for Best Documentary in Venice and screened at over 100 leading events and venues worldwide including SXSW, Rotterdam, CPH:DOX, TIFF Bell Lightbox, and the IFC Center. Klinger’s articles have appeared in Sight & Sound, Film Comment, and Cinema Scope. He has taught film studies at University of Illinois and Columbia College.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Porto, feature

Elina Talvensaari

Finland

Born in Helsinki, Finland, Elina Talvensaari began her studies with anthropology and sociology at Helsinki University. While fnishing her master’s degree she switched to flm studies, majoring in documentary directing. Her latest film HOW TO PICK BERRIES opened at Venice Film Festival, and has been awarded in various international festivals such as San Sebastian, Tromsø and Tampere and has been recognized also by Fine Art institutions such as MoMa in New York. She is currently finishing her studies on flm directing at Aalto University, ELO Helsinki Film School.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 How to Pick Berries, short

Špela Čadež

Slovenia

Špela Čadež (born 1977) is a Slovenian animator and filmmaker. After graduating in Visual Communication Design (2002) in Ljubljana she continued her studies at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, Department of Media Design. During her studies in Germany she made two animated puppet films MATE TO MEASURE and LOVESICK which have been screened at over a hundred festivals all over the world and won more than 30 awards. Since 2008 Špela Čadež works in Slovenia as an independent animation film director and producer.

Marisa Ginger Tontaveetong is an animator from Bangkok, Thailand based in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently finishing up her MFA in Animation at Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta, she is also the executive director of ASIFA-Atlanta (International Animation Society affiliated with UNESCO), Atlanta Film Society’s filmmaker-in-residence, SIGGRAPH S3 committee member, and co-director of Oscar long-listed animated short STARLIGHT.

With a B.Tech in computer graphics/ multimedia and over 10+ years as web designer/developer working with companies globally such as Unilever in Singapore, she also runs a blog called www.needyanimator.com with a monthly rate of 7-10,000 views focus on soft skill resources for animators and artists including entertainment law, contracts, and film festival tips. She has also been the art director on Atlanta’s Global Game Jam’s 1st place team in 2014, semifinalist of Adobe Design Achievement Award for both motion media in 2015 and animation in 2014, chosen for the ADOBE ICO-D mentorship program and Variety.com’s 110 students who represent the future of film, media and entertainment for 2015. Along with coordinating various children’s animation workshop for ASIFA-Atlanta and the Atlanta Film Society for schools all over Atlanta, she has lead creative panels at the Atlanta Film Festival, Dragoncon and invited to speak at various colleges such as Maryland College of Institute of Technology and Bangkok University International College.

FILMOGRAPHY 2015 Starlight, animated short

Carin Bräck

Sweden

Carin Bräck was born in Stockholm, studied scriptwriting and has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Lund. She works as a director, scriptwriter and teacher in scriptwriting.

Jeppe Rønde, born in 1973, is one of the most recognized, award-winning Danish filmmakers. Since graduating from the University of Copenhagen in 2002, he has directed short fiction films, feature documentaries and commercials.

His debut feature documentary work JERUSALEM MY LOVE won countless international prizes including Nordisk Panorama, Taiwan IFF and Dok Leipzig FF (Golden Dove).His second feature film THE SWENKAS won the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs 2005, Best Documentary at CPH:DOX and was nominated for European Film Academy Awards (2005). During last few years he won several ‘Roberts’ (Danish equivalent of the Oscars) for his TV and feature documentary work.

Rønde has now completed the feature film, BRIDGEND, shot on location in Wales, which world premiered in the Hivos Tiger Awards Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015.

Having spent his early life in the Middle East, Andrew returned to the North East of England to study Literature Film. He made a documentary at a workshop led by Abbas Kiarostami in southern Italy, and then made a short drama titled Breathe For Me. This film premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival and went on to play many other European festivals. Lamb was his next project, premiering at Encounters and playing Oberhausen, Krakow, Brest and Hamburg amongst other international festivals, gaining Special Mention of the Jury at Nice Film Festival 2009 and inclusion in Oberhausen’s Best of the Festival DVD selection and their permanent archive. Compulsion is his third film, premiering at London Film Festival 2011 and winning Best Film at London Short Film Festival 2012. Currently, he works in development of feature film and moving image installation projects at Third Films.

FILMOGRAPHY 2011 Compulsion, short

Ruben Östlund

Sweden

Born in 1974. Ruben Östlund is the co-founder of the production company Plattform Produktion, which produces his films. He started out as a director of skiing films in the 90s, and later went on to study at the film school in Gothenburg. He has directed three dramatic feature-length films, THE GUITRAR MONGOLOID (2004), INVOLUNTARY (2008) and PLAY(2011) that celebrated its world premiere Cannes.

FILMOGRAPHY 2011 Play, feature 2010 Incident by a Bank, short 2008 Involuntary, short 2004 The Guitar Mongoloid, short 2002 Family Again, short

QIU Yang

China

QIU Yang was born and raised in Changzhou, China. He studied film directing at the Victorian College of the Arts, Australia.

His last short film A GENTLE NIGHTwas selected for the 70th Festival de Cannes Short Film Competition in 2017. And in 2015, his short UNDER THE SUNwas selected for the 68th Festival de Cannes Cinéfondation competition and is now selected for more than 80 international film festivals, including the AFI Fest, New Directors/New Films, Clermont-Ferrand, Palm Springs and nominated for the 52nd Taipei Golden Horse Award. He has been chosen to participate the Taipei Golden Horse Film Academy, mentored by the legendary film master Hou Hsiao Hsien, as well as the Swatch Art Peace Hotel residency in Shanghai.

He is currently developing his first feature project UNDER THE SUN(same title as the short), which was selected for the CineMart 2016 and Cinéfondation Residence 2017.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 A Gentle Night, short 2016 Under the Sun, short

Tudor Jurgiu

Romania

Born in 1984, Tudor Jurgiu studied at the Drama and Film University in Bucharest. After shooting several short film, he now works on his first feature film The Japanese Dog, about an old man, Costache Moldu, who tries to connect with his estranged son after a flood has swept away his wife and house.

FILMOGRAPHY 2011 The Japanese Dog, short 2009 Oli’s Wedding, short 2009 Ela, short

Edmunds Jansons

Latvia

Edmunds Jansons was born in 1972 in Saldus, Latvia. He studied TV directing at Academy of Culture, has taken animation directing course at VGIK in Moscow, but recently graduated MA at Estonian Academy of Art – the masterclass led by Priit Pärn.

In 2002 Edmunds founds animation film studio Atom Art. Studio tends to be a platform for young talented animators and their experiments. In the last years Atom Art has become one of the most noticeable creatively active Latvian animation studios. The films produced by Atom Art has been selected at the festivals all over the world, such as Annecy, Ottawa, Hiroshima, HAFF, Stuttgart, Zagreb, Oberhausen, Clermont-Ferrand, Dok Leipzig, Encounters, Anima Mundi and many others, and has been awarded in many of them. Studio works in variety of techniques – drawing, sand animation, animation with charcoal, puppet and cut out animation. There is also a big variety of animation genres – magical realism, animated documentary, musical, absurd, animated tv series for pre-schoolers a.o. Edmunds has worked as tutor of animation directing at Academy of Art and Academy of Culture of Latvia. He is also film expert at Culture Endowment Fund and National Film Centre of Latvia. Besides his initial work Edmunds is recognized and beloved award winning children’s book illustrator. His books “Year of Wonderbaby” and “Poop and Springtime” has been awarded J.Baltvilks Best illustrations award and had been included in IBBY honor list. Each film has its own story of how it began. One begins with some sort of event while another with a vivid visual image. THE ISLE OF SEALS began with a peculiar place and its environment.

Born in Cologne, Germany, Jens decided to come to the Uk at the age of 21. He studied art and design, creating a bunch of animated shorts eventually starting to work as a freelancer for Nexusproductions. The last project Jens worked on at Nexus before joining the NFTS for a 2 year MA in animation direction was the 2009 oscar nominated short THIS WAY UP. His graduation film COOKED has screened as part of the official selection of the Cannes film festival in 2010. Since then it has been shown in over 30 festivals worldwide. He is currently developing a new short project and looking to get representation as a director within the animation industry.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 Cooked, short 2009 This Way Up, short

Shir Wen Sun

Malaysia

Shir Wen Sun was born and raised in Malaysia, Shir Wen Sun, who also commonly goes by the name Sun, is a passionate artist who dabbles in many fields of art such as illustration, graphic design, animation and games.

She is the co-director of Oscar long-listed animated short STARLIGHT, and has received many awards and recognition such as First Place in Global Game Jam 2014, as Production Manager/ Background designer and painter, Acceptee of 52 Illustration West Competition , Adobe Design Achievement Awards Semifinalist 2014 for illustration and animation category and 1st place in ASIFA 12X12 Animation Competition 2012. Her works have also been published in Port City Review 2014 and exhibited in SCAD’s open studio night.

FILMOGRAPHY 2015 Starlight, animated short

Josephine Decker

Having started her career in documentaries, helping to produce for A&E, ABC and Discovery, Josephine Decker often builds her work from improvisation and collaboration with real communities. Her recent feature BUTTER ON THE LATCH- called “a sexy, wild romp you have to see to believe” by Indiewire and “an utter exhilaration of cinematic imagination” by The New Yorker – is set at a real-life Balkan folk song and dance camp. The film, based on a Balkan folk song, explores the dark intimacy and neuroses of a female friendship, was included in Film Comment’s year-end list of Best Undistributed Films of 2013, and will have its international premiere at the Berlinale 2014. Recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, Josephine has just completed her second narrative feature THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY. Starring Joe Swanberg, Robert Longstreet, Sophie Traub and Kristin Slaysman and inspired by a character from John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” Thou Wast Mild and Lovely balances horror, beauty, and intimacy as an erotic thriller set in the wilds of Kentucky. The film will World Premiere at the Berlinale 2014.

In 2008, Josephine directed the documentary feature BI THE WAY, exploring the rise of bisexuality in America and available on Logo and Netflix. The film screened at SXSW, Silverdocs, and about 100 festivals worldwide and received write‐ups in The Austin Chronicle, Curve Magazine, The New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Dallas Morning News, among others. Josephine’s short films and music videos have played at MoMA, SXSW, Cucalorus, Maryland, and Austin Film Festival, have won children’s programming awards, and can be seen on PBS and Kidzbop. Her short ME THE TERRIBLE, about a child pirate who tries to conquer New York City, received a glowing review in The New Yorker. Fortunate to be collaborating with artists she admires, Josephine Decker spent the past few years producing short videos for United Way, creative producing a doc for performance artist Sarah Small and acting in films by directors like Joe Swanberg, Onur Tukel and Spencer Parsons. Josephine also raises awareness about environmental issues through her performance art.

Greek director, writer and producer born in 1970. Studied in the Stavrakos Film School. His short film THE LAST FAKIR was awarded to a newcomer’s prize at Drama Short Film Festival in Greece. His first feature debiut was L from 2012 nominated to Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival and Tiger Award in Rotterdam International Film Festival.

FILMOGRAPHY2017 Pity, feature2012 L, feature2010 The Last Fakir, short

Michal Blaško

Slovakia

Michal Blaško (1989, Bratislava) studies Film and television directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU). His second year film at VŠMU, STRACH (Fear, 2015), was premiered at the 63rd San Sebastián International Film Festival and won several prizes including Best Short Film Award at the 21st International Film Festival in Vilnius. He is a writer and co-director (with Marta Prokopová) of a short animated film WILD BEASTS, which was presented at the Short Film Project Lab during the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. His bachelor project ATLANTIS, 2003 premiered at the Cinéfondation competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival and was also selected for the Future Frames at the 52nd Karlovy Vary IFF.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 Atlantis 2003, short 2015 Fear, short

Carla Simón

Spain

Carla Simón (1986) studied at the University of California and the Audiovisual Communication Department of Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona. After that she directed TV series and programmes for TV Catalan. After being awarded the prestigious scholarship of Obra Social “la Caixa”, Carla moved to the UK to study at the London Film School, where she wrote and directed the documentary BORN POSITIVE and the fiction LIPSTICK, both short films selected in numerous international film festivals.

SUMMER 1993 is her feature film debut produced by Inicia Films and co-produced by Avalon. The project was developed at Berlinale Script Station, Ekran program in Poland, Sources 2 in Barcelona and won the SGAE screenwriting fund. It was also presented at the Low Budget Film Forum in Les Arcs, Premiers Plans Atelier, Berlinale Co-Production Market and won the first prize in Holland Film Meetings in 2015. The film also received the MEDIA Development funding and the ICAA fund for production. In 2013 Carla created Young For Film!, an association which taught cinema to children and teenagers. Since moving back to Barcelona, she has been collaborating with “Cinema en Curs”.

Jonas Odell is partner and co-founder of the production company Filmtecknarna. He specializes in making films combining live action and various mixed media animation techniques. He has also scripted, co-scripted and written the music to a number of the studio’s productions. His short film NEVER LIKE THE FIRST TIME! was awarded with the Golden Bear for best short film in the Berlin Film Festival 2006. His short LIES was awarded as Best International Short at the Sundance film festival 2009. The past years Jonas has also been a much sought after director for music videos and his portfolio includes videos for such artists as Erasure, Goldfrapp, U2 and Franz Ferdinand, for which he received an award for breakthrough video of the year at the MTV Music Awards 2004 as well as a Grammy nomination. Jonas also directs a number of television commercials each year.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 Tussilago, short 2008 Lies, short 2006 Never Like the First Time!, short 2002 Family and Friends, short 1997 Otto, short 1995 Body Parts, short 1993 Revolver, short 1993 Alice in Plasmaland, short 1989 Exit, short 1988 Pesce Pesce, short 1985 Dawning, short

Gustav Danielsson

Sweden

Gustav Danielsson was born 1975 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. Studied Architecture at Chalmers and directing at IHTV. Gustav work primarily as a cinematographer, whose work includes Roy Anderssonʼs most recent, award winning feature film You, the living. The film premiered in the Certain Regard section in Cannes 2007. In 2008 Gustav made the short documentary PORTRAIT OF A RELUCTANT GENTLEMANwhich received a lot of attention for its experimental and visual style. The Twin is his short feature film debut.

FILMOGRAPHY 2012 Animals I Killed Last Summer, short 2011 The Twin Writer, short 2008 Portrait of a Reluctant Gentleman Writer, short

Cav Bøgelund

Denmark

Cav Bøgelund (1978) has a degree in character animation from The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. On top of this, Cav graduated as animation director from The National Film School of Denmark in 2008. Apart from his work with film, Cav has written, illustrated and edited a series of comics, along with doing illustration and graphic facilitation for years.

In 2012, Cav helped to create a bachelor’s degree in graphic storytelling at The Animation Workshop and he is now on the schools advisory board. Cav has just finished directing Film Maker’s animated short film BROTHERS IN ARMS.

FILMOGRAPHY 2012 Brothers in Arms, short

Ivaylo Minov

Bulgaria

Ivaylo Minov has been directing for the past ten years. He worked as a journalist before gaining experience in the film industry as casting director, first and second AD and location manager. He graduated from the London Film Academy in 2007. His main work currently takes place in the field of short films and TV commercials. He’s an established commercial director with several years of experience on the Bulgarian market. In 2014, he has completed his latest short film PARKING.

He is currently writing extensively for his debut feature. He maintains keen interest in theatre, directing plays by William Shakespeare, Yordan Radichkov and Kamen Donev for the independent group “Kunkurigashtite Pemperugi”, at various venues in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2011, he established his own production company, Morning Glory Film Ltd. Ivaylo lives in Sofia and London.

FILMOGRAPHY 2014 Parking, short 2012 Lunch Break, short 2012 The Ground Beneath Her Feet, short 2009 The First, short 2007 The Rabbit and the Woodcutter, short 2006 Beautiful Burglar, short 2004 Hat and Telephone Date, short

Kateřina Karhánková

Czech Republic

Kateřina Karhánková graduated from the Animation Department at FAMU, Prague. She focuses on films for children, often visiting schools to interview kids. Her graduation film THE NEW SPECIES competed at Annecy 2014, was presented at the MoMA in NYC and was selected at several international festivals where it won awards from both juries and audiences. Her following film, TONY AND MR. ILLNESS, won several awards including the 2015 Gold Panda.

Przemek Kotyński was born in 1981 in Zyrardow. Self-taught, he graduated with a degree not directly related to art, a MSc. in Mathematics and Information Science from the Warsaw University of Technology. Przemek creates mainly film and advertising for the Warsaw Production Studio Orka. He worked on the post-production of such films as Manhunt by Martin Krzyształowicz , 80 millions by Waldemar Krzystek , Girl in the Closet by Bodo Kox , Ixjana by Skolimowski brothers, Ambassada by Machulski, The Warsaw Uprising by Jan Komasa and Photographer by Waldemar Krzystek.

He worked for brands such as Mazda, Orange, Ladybug, Oshee, Bwin, Bakoma, Garnier, Coral, Play, Peugeot, Samsung, Ferrero. The list of customers also included such studios as Platige Image, Vivid Games, Yakumama or CI Games. Kotyński’s illustrative works lived to see the publication of, among others, in Exotique and Ballistic Publishing EXPOSE whether BOOK OF CREATION 2012 Oracom.

He mainly works with picture, he designs and illustrates. BLOODY SUNDAY is his debut as a director and another step in the implementation of the arts. Previously worked with Arkadiusz Jurcan at the “Canon of Polish fairy tales” , a collection of four short animated cartoons.

Born in Parma (1977) is a scenographer-set/ stage designer, visual artist and vfx-art director.

She spent her early career to work as Set/Stage Designer and Concept/Visual Artist for many productions since 2001 to 2011 in the Lyric Opera House in Italy and Europe: Theatre Marijnski- St. Petersburg, Theatre Regio Turin, Theatre la Fenice – Venice, Theatre Comunale Bologna, Operà Royal de Wallonie, Theatre Comunale Piacenza, Rome Opera House, with Directors Luca Ronconi, Davide Livermore, Walter Le Moli, Rosetta Cucchi, Alfonso Antoniozzi. Then she moved to work into Movie Production and begin to collaborate on different projects (commercial spot, movies, animation short) for creating virtual set design and look, where she put together both vfx and art departmental skills.

One of her past important work for a production movie has been Cloud Atlas by Wachowski Brothers at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. She signed at the Beijing Music Festival (2013) the Virtual multimedia Set Design on some Lyric Opera for the Verdi’s Festival celebration ( Traviata, Rigoletto, Trovatore and Opening Ceremony). She also collaborated as Scenographer for fashion show (Paris, New York, Milan, 2012-2013) with Villa Eugenie (Bruxelles) and Sivestrin (Milan) . Credits: Dior, Y3, Condenast-Vogue, Borbonese, Meissen.

Last year she collaborated with Event Creative Director Marco Balich and his creative team for event show like OPERA ON ICE at the Arena of Verona. Now she is focusing on projects regarding creative and artistic direction in cinema, lyric opera house and fashion&event show. She sign as director her first short animation movie: The BALLAD of HOMELESS ( La Ballata dei SenzaTetto – 2015) with the co-production of EmiliaRomagna Film Commission. Also she is preparing the scenography-stage design for 5 Lyric Opera for the next Opening season 2015-2016 for the CARLO FELICE OPERA HOUSE GENOVA: Roberto Devereux, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda by G. Donizetti, Il Turco in Italia for Como Opera House-Aslico, AIDA in Perugia for Morlacchi Opera House.

She will sign WHEN THE DREAM COMES TRUE: FONTANA SISTER a documentary film mixed animation about famous haute couture fashion designers Micol, Giovanna and Zoe Fontana and her future first fiction film THE OPERA SON.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 A Symphony for Rossini: Il Turco in Italia, animated short 2015 The Ballad of the Homeless, animated short

Yu Ueda

Japan

Yu Ueda was born in Japan and studied Animation in the United States. While Yu teaches himself drawing and digital animation tools, he also explores puppet and miniature making for stop-motion animation.

FILMOGRAPHY 2015 Starlight, animated short

Eliška Chytková

Czech Republic

Eliška Chytková is a Czech young animator and director. She studies animation at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. Eliška says about her own approach to work and life:

“The most ordinary thing about those ordinary days of our time is the everydayness, impersonal greyness and the fact that the greatest stereotype of all is that there is always something new. That greyness is what doesn’t let the imagination perish. None of us is without imagination. None of us stamps on it and holds it chained, no matter how hard we try. None of us!“

Katarzyna is a graduate from the Polish Film School in Lodz and alumni of the Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam.

Her documentary WASSERSCHLACHT – THE GREAT BORDER BATTLE co-directed with Andrew Friedman was awarded Berlin Today Award during Berlinale 2007. Her short film HANOI-WARSZAWA won many Polish and International awards and was voted the Best Short of 2010 by the European Film Academy. Her debut feature film FLYING BLIND premiered in Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2012 where it was nominated for the prestigious Michael Powell Award. The film received three Awards (Grand Prix, Best Director, Critics Award) at the Polish Festival of First Films in Koszalin and was released cinematically in the UK and in Poland in 2013.

Katarzyna is a member of the European Film Academy, for many years she was also a president of Film 1,2 Association, which supports young filmmakers in Poland.

FILMOGRAPHY 2013 La Isla, short 2012 Flying Blind, short 2009 Hanoi-Warszawa, short 2009 Nic do stracenia, documentary short 2007 Wasserschlacht: The Great Border Battle, documentary short 1999 Treading Water, short

Alicja Jasina

Poland

Alicja Jasina is a Polish film-maker who graduated with a Masters degree in Animation and Digital Arts from University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Before that, she obtained a Bachelors degree in Illustration and Animation at Kingston University in London. Her short films have been awarded at festivals worldwide. In 2014 she won the Royal Television Society Student Award for her graduation LIGHT BULB. Alicja tells intriguing stories about daily dilemmas and captures the everyday life in unusual ways. Alicja is currently working freelance in Los Angeles.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Once Upon A Line

Kamil Polak

Poland

Director Kamil Polak studied classical music, ballet and painting at the College of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and excelled in all these disciplines. His love of story-telling brought him to film-making, and in animation he has found the opportunity to combine his classical training in drawing and painting with his love of music and rhythm, and to bring these together in one dramatic narrative. He studied directing at the world-renowned Łódź Film School.

His film INSIDE is on the all-time great films reel of the School, and his film BIRTH OF A NATION won the 2nd prize at the Wiesbaden International Festival and has been widely sold to international television. He developed THE LOST TOWN OF ŚWITEŹ during his graduation year. Kamil was the Visual Effects Supervisor on “Peter & the Wolf”, a £ 2.5 million stop-frame animation for Channel 4 and for the big screen accompanied by live orchestra.

FILMOGRAPHY 2010 The Lost Town of Świteź, animated short 2003 In, animated short 2001 Birth of a Nation, animated short

Jānis Nords

Latvia

After extensively working as 1AD on various Latvian features and TV commercials, Jānis Nords shot his feature debut AMATEUR in 2008. The film won Best Debut at the Latvian National Film Festival. The following year he co-wrote Return of Sergeant Lapins (directed by Gatis Smits), which premiered at Busan International Film Festival. He then studied film directing at National Film and Television School in Britain. MOTHER, I LOVE YOU is Jānis Nords’ second feature.

Born in 1986 in Trzebież, Poland. He made his first films FRUSTRATU:HERZLEID (2004) and LIFE 1.0 (2006) at the art school in Szczecin, before he started studying animation at the renowned film school in Lodz in 2007. In 2011, he signed up for the parallel study of scriptwriting at the same school. ZIEGENORT is his graduation film.

Miguel Llansó, a big fan of experimental-punk-weird music and films, studied philosophy and cinema before leaving on his many adventures. He has mainly filmed in Ethiopia, where he lives half the year. Inspired by Werner Herzog, he created and distributed the film WHERE IS MY DOG? (2010, with Yohannes Feleke), screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2011 & 2012) and other international festivals. He also directed, produced and wrote CHIGGER ALE (2013) – a short film about Hitler´s Ethiopian clone which premiered at Locarno Film Festival in 2013 and has been screened at BAFICI, Tampere, Hamburg and more than 25 international film festivals.

CRUMBS (2015) is Miguel´s feature film debut, premiering at Rotterdam International Film Festival 2015.

Devon Manney is a 22-year-old artist and filmmaker, currently living in Los Angeles. He grew up in Moorhead, MN, where he taught himself to draw and animate at the age of 9, largely as a way to occupy his ever-expanding imagination (and escape from the frigid winters). By the time he left high school, his films had been screened at festivals across the US, and Devon was named one of the top-14 young filmmakers in the nation by the National YoungArts Foundation.

Studying Animation at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Devon was awarded grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, ASIFA-Hollywood, and the USC Undergraduate Research Fellowship, as well as being named the recipient of the 2016 Association of American Editorial Cartoonists’ Locher Memorial Award, given annually to the most promising student cartoonist in North America.

FILMOGRAPHY 2017 Cradle, animated short 2016 The Red We’ve Got, animated short 2015 A Study in Studies, animated short 2014 The Sight of Stars, animated short

Farnoosh Samadi

Iran

Farnoosh Samadi was born in Iran and graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Rome. She started her career as a filmmaker at the Iranian Youth Cinema Societyand after that she made some video installations. She is the scriptwriter for the short films More Than Two Hours directed by Ali Asgari which was nominated fora Palme d’Or at Cannes 2013, The Baby which premiered in Short film competition at Venice Film Festival 2014 and some other short films.

She is currently co-writing a feature film with Ali Asgari which is accepted at Cinefondation Residence of Cannes Film Festival. THE SILENCE is her first short film which will have its world premiere in competition at Cannes Film Festival 2016.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 The Silence, short film

Ivan I. Tverdovsky

Russia

Born in 1988. He graduated from the Russian Institute for Cinematography in 2011. His early documentary works won him multiple awards in Russia and at international film festivals worldwide. His fiction debut CORRECTIONS CLASS (2014), inspired by the novel by psychologist Ekaterina Murashova, won over 35 prizes worldwide, including East of the West Award (Crystal Globe) at the 49. Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (international premiere).

ZOOLOGY is Ivan’s second feature project. It was showcased both at the Paris Co-Production Village and Les Arcs in 2015 and received financial support from the Eurimages and Russian Ministry of Culture.

Asaph was born in Washington, DC in 1983. In Israel, where he grew up, he directed, wrote and produced two short films, both official selections of the Jerusalem Film Festival: ZIPPER and IN BED AT 10 P.M. In 2010 he attended The American Film Institute Conservatory’s Directing Program where he directed the 2013 Student Academy Award Nominee thesis film SAMN ANG, which premiered at the New York Film Festival and won awards and screened at several film festivals internationally.

His debut feature film, ONE WEEK AND A DAY, was participated in the 2012 Sam Spiegel International Film Lab – Jerusalem, participated in the 2013 Sofia Meetings and won the 2015 Haifa Film Festival Work in Progress Award. Asaph was awarded AFI’s Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award, an Irwin and Sheila Allen Scholarship and an America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 One Week and a Day, feature 2013 Samn Ang, short 2010 In Bed at 10 PM, short 2009 Zipper, short

Ishan Shukla

India

Ishan is an award winning Indian CG Artist and Filmmaker working in the animation medium for past 8 years. Ishan has a strong penchant for story-telling and has been engaged in creating comics, films and stage-plays since childhood. After dropping out of an engineering college to pursue animation, he graduated from 3D Sense Media School Singapore in 2008. Between 2008-2012, he was based in Singapore spearheading projects ranging from TV commercials to TV series. Ishan then took a 2 year-long sabbatical to work on his short film – SCHIRKOA. He is now working as a CG Lead at an animation studio in India while working on personal projects in spare time. His animation shorts and artworks have won several awards and have been featured on various online portals.

FILMOGRAPHY 2016 Schirkoa, animated short

Marc James Roels & Emma De Swaef

Marc James Roels is a live-action director, making award winning shorts ‘Mompelaar’ in 2007 and ‘A Gentle Creature’ in 2010. Emma De Swaef specializes in stop-motion and doll-making, her preferred working materials include wool, felt and textile. Together they made the short film ‘Oh Willy…’ in 2012, a stop-motion short that won 80 international awards including the Cartoon d’Or for best European short, and a Cézar nomination. They are based in Antwerp, Belgium and ‘Ce Magnifique Gâteau !’ is their latest production.

Eva Pervolovici

Romania

Eva Pervolovici is a young Romanian director whose record already contains an impressive list of short films, video art, photographs and participation in the collective writing of novels or art magazines. Multiple in its forms and styles of expression, the heteroclite work of Eva always has the same intention: to make visible subjectivity by letting the surreal arise in everyday situations. Featured and awarded for originality in many festivals around the world, she also got an MFA Film Advance Practice (Edinburgh).

In 2010 she was nominated for the Berlin Today Award, which gave her the opportunity to direct LITTLE RED (world premier Berlinale 2011). Her work, LUBABEN, was shown in the official Tiger competition in Rotterdam 2011, while MINA was shown in Spectrum in the same festival. MARUSSIA, shot in Paris, is Eva’s first feature film. It had its world premiere at Berlinale 2013.

Hana Jušić obtained ma degree in film and tv directing at Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She also graduated in comparative literature and English language and literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2007 and she enrolled in the Postgraduate Doctor’s Study of Liter­ature and Film.

So far, she has written and directed several short fiction and documentary films which have been shown at student, but also at some prominent European festivals. She has directed short films ‘Zimica’ / ‘The Chill’ (international premiere in competition at Oberhousen festival), ‘Mušice, krpelji, pčele’ / ‘Gnats, Ticks and Bees’, for which she has received Oktavijan award and the Jelena Rajković award and ‘Terarij’ / ‘Terrarium’, for which she received Oktavijan award for fiction film and Golden Pram award at Zagreb Film Festival. Her latest short ‘Da je kuća dobra i vuk bi je imao’ / ‘No Wolf Has a House’ was screened in Rotterdam and awarded Best Film at London Short Film Festival 2016. She has written the script for feature film ‘Zagonetni dječak’ / ‘The Mysterious Boy’, directed by Dražen Žarković.

‘Quit Staring at My Plate’ is her debut feature film as a director/screenwriter. The project was developed at screen­writing workshop Torino Film Lab, the programs Script & Pitch and TFL – FrameWork, intended for projects in pre-production.